Verona's Paul Scully looks to pin a Nottingham wrestler during the Hillbillies' visit to a quad meet in South Brunswick Feb. 8.

Paul Scully knew coming into the Hillbillies' match against Orange Jan. 31 that he was going for his 100th career win, a milestone that only four Verona wrestlers had reached before him.

What the senior was unaware of was that his family and a few good friends would be there to watch the 35 seconds it took him to pin his opponent and hit triple-digits.

"It was really cool ... I didn't know my family was going to be there and a few of my friends were going to be there," Scully told the Times at the Hillbillies meet in South Brunswick Saturday.

One of those friends was Alex Kaslander, who hit the 1,000-point milestone in a basketball game just a few weeks ago.

At the time Scully had tweeted congratulations to Kaslander before noting that 100 wins was more impressive than 1,000 points, and Saturday he explained why.

"I don't know, I think 100 wins is a little harder because there is a match limit," Scully said. "There is no point limit in basketball."

In order to reach the 100-win mark a wrestler must be very consistent throughout all four years of high school, Head Coach Pete Foster said, and the feat points to the strength of the Verona recreation program.

"It's just a testament to the work he's been putting in," the coach said. "He's a good kid and he deserves it."

Scully said freshman year he set the goal of getting to 100 by the time he graduated. He finished that season with 28 wins, well on pace to hit the mark.

"I got off to a good start. I knew I had to work hard going into high school," Scully said. "It's pretty hard to get there, it took me a while, but I finally did it."

Of late Assistant Coach Chris Hardenberg - another member of the Hillbillies' 100-win club - has been working with Scully, preparing him for the big moment.

While Foster is only in his first year coaching Scully, he can already list a handful of factors that make the senior so successful: his intelligence, has lack of mistakes that result in easy points for his opponent, his controlling of the tempo and his ability to force other wrestlers to conform to his style.

"Everyone says wrestling is an individual sport, but our entire team, the fans that were there, everybody that was there was very excited," Foster said.

The win may have even helped propel the Hillbillies to a victory that night.

"It's helpful, and sometimes having a guy like that kind of helps set the tone for the other guys," the coach said. "They get excited to see him and it lifts up their performance as well."

Following the 100th win Scully hasn't slowed down, he is undefeated in six matches since.

The athlete himself may have said it best when it comes to what drives him to success.

"I hate losing," Scully stated matter-of-factly, "so I just try not to lose."